The Buffalo State College Communication Department has established a scholarship in memory of the late Ronald D. Smith, professor emeritus of public communication, for an undergraduate communication student planning a career in public relations. 

Details about the scholarship and how to donate are located on Buffalo State’s JustGiving website.

Did you miss Random Acts of Kindness Week in February? Good news! You can help celebrate National I Want You to Be Happy Day, today, March 3, by volunteering to help cook and serve free lasagna to the Buffalo State College community.

Stephen Forman, Buffalo State alumnus, executive chef for the Buffalo Bills and Sabers, and owner of Thyme-N-Honey, will cook and serve multiple helpings of lasagna with members of the Buffalo State community and the organization Lasagna Love. If you’re interested in participating, sign up for your shift here.

Lasagna Love is an international grassroots movement with a mission to connect neighbors through free homemade meal delivery. There is no income level requirement.

You can request a lasagna order for yourself or someone you know who could use a delicious homemade meal. Want to get involved with Lasagna Love? Sign up on the organization’s website.

Please email Paula Madrigal, assistant director of prevention and health promotion, Weigel Health Center, with questions.

From the Chair of the College Senate Bylaws and Elections Committee
Two at-large College Senate positions will become vacant on August 29, 2022. At-large senators represent the entirety of the college. All full-time faculty and professional staff members are eligible to run for these seats provided they meet other eligibility requirements (see below).

A call for nominations and information about candidates’ statements can be found on the College Senate website. The call for nominations begins at 12:01 a.m. Monday, April 18, and continues through 5:00 p.m. Friday, April 22. Elections for these positions will run from 12:01 a.m. Monday, April 25, to 11:59 p.m. Friday, April 29.

Senate elections conducted by the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Education, the School of the Professions, and the Professional Staff Caucus should be concluded before April 29.

Eligibility: Current College Senate members who are completing two consecutive terms in their respective positions are not eligible for reelection. For additional information on eligibility requirements, please consult the Bylaws of the College Faculty on the College Senate website.

Campaigning: The College Senate Bylaws and Elections Committee strongly discourages using college email services for campaigning. Please limit campaigning to the candidate statement posted on the College Senate website, available to the college community on Monday, April 25.

Please note: Individuals running for a senator position in another election may not also run for an at-large senator position while the other election is being conducted. If the other election concludes during the period when nominations for at-large senators are still being accepted, eligible individuals may self-nominate for the position.

If you are interested in being a candidate, please contact Vincent Masci, assistant to the College Senate. We look forward to your participation in the vital process of campus governance.

Please let your students know that fall 2022 scholarship applications are now available in the Campus Application Portal for Scholarships (CAPS). Students may apply for fall scholarships until Sunday, April 10. Please email scholarship@buffalostate.edu with questions.

Weigel Health Promotion, Professional Development, and the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) are offering a Stop the Bleed workshop for Buffalo State College students, faculty, and staff on Monday, March 14, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

Facilitated by Erie County Medical Center (ECMC), this free workshop will teach participants how to recognize serious bleeding and learn ways to control it, such as applying direct pressure, packing wounds, and using a tourniquet. All participants will have the hands-on opportunity to practice these skills and will be issued a course completion certificate at the end of class. This is a great opportunity to offer to students for extra credit or resume-building.

Space is limited, so please register online before the workshop.

Please join the Buffalo State College Biology Department for an upcoming spring tour of the greenhouse and Eckert Herbarium, led by Robert Warren, professor of biology. Both facilities are located in the Science and Mathematics Complex.

Please register for your preferred tour using the links below: 

• Wednesday, March 16, 1:30–2:30 p.m.
• Friday, April 8, 10:00–11:00 a.m.. 
• Monday, April 25, 1:30–2:30 p.m.

Students, faculty, and staff members are invited to participate in a Civic Engagement Series event on Wednesday, March 9, in the Campbell Student Union lobby. We will make reusable bags to benefit a local food pantry. Please stop by the Civic and Community Engagement table between 11:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. to make one bag or 10!

The Grant Allocation Committee funds the Civic Engagement Series.

The fascinating story of Katheryne T. Whittemore—who has been described as the “founding mother of Buffalo State College,” the “grand lady of geography,” and most recently “Buffalo State’s real-life Indiana Jones”—will be retold by Stephen Vermette, professor of geography, on Thursday, March 10, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in Technology Building 160. The event, held in honor of Women’s History Month, is free and open to the public.

The story follows Whittemore’s professional journey from 1921 through 1962, starting with a world tour as a single unattended female, through her 37-year teaching, research, and administrative career at Buffalo State. A few vignettes include her recruitment to one of the few geography departments in the country that welcomed women and recruited them at the graduate level; her identification as a “flapper” by her employer; a Great Depression–era dilemma that may have cost her her job; keeping geography an independent entity on campus; and the honors and respect she received for her service to Buffalo State.

Dr. Vermette conducted his research on Whittemore’s professional journey with assistance from Daniel DiLandro, head of archives and special collections, and Hope Dunbar, special collections archivist, in E. H. Butler Library.

From the Chair of the College Senate
The second meeting of the College Senate for spring 2022 will be held Friday, March 11, at 3:00 p.m. in Bulger Communication Center 215 (Newman Lecture Hall). Please contact Vincent Masci, assistant to the College Senate, with questions.

Hutong Fan, a master’s degree candidate in the Great Lakes environmental science program at Buffalo State College, will present an oral defense of his thesis, “Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Big Dataset on PM2.5 Air Pollution in Beijing, China, 2014 to 2018,” on Thursday, March 3, from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. in Buckham Hall A108. All are invited to attend.

Abstract
Air particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution is a critical environment problem worldwide and also in Beijing, China. We gathered five-year PM2.5 contaminate concentrations from 2014 to 2018 from the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center and China Air Quality Real-time Distribution Platform. This is a big dataset, and we collected with crawler technology from Python programming. After examining the quality of the recorded data, we determined to conduct the temporal and spatial analysis using 27 observation stations located in both urban and suburb area in the municipality of Beijing. The big dataset of five-year hourly PM2.5 concentrations was sorted to actionable datasets (Selected Datasets and Seasonal Average Selected Datasets) with the help of Python programming.

The results of this research are (1) PM2.5 pollutions in winter are the most severe or the highest in each of the natural years. (2) PM2.5 pollution concentrations in Beijing were gradually decreased during 2014 to 2018. (3) In terms of a five-year time perspective, the improvements of air quality and reduction of PM2.5 contaminant appeared in all the seasons based on Fundamental Data Analysis. (4) PM2.5 contaminant concentrations in summer are significantly less than other seasons. (5) The least PM2.5 pollutant influenced area is north and northwest regions in Beijing, and the most PM2.5 pollutant influenced area is south and southeast areas in Beijing. (6) Vehicle concentration and traffic congestion are not the significant impact factor of PM2.5 pollutions in Beijing. (7) Heating supply of buildings and houses generated great contributions to the PM2.5 contaminant concentration in Beijing. While in the background of rigorous emission reduction policy and management operations by the municipal government, contribution of heating supplies is gradually decreasing. (8) Human activities have limited contributions to the PM2.5 contaminants in Beijing. Meanwhile, type and quantity of fossil fuel energy consumptions might contribute large amount of air pollutions.